Does anyone have a link to the actual study? The linked DOI is a 404, and I'm confused by the phrasing of "more than 40%". Does the study not have a more exact number (with error)?
More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
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Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#12I would have expected a higher percentage. Few openings and a high bar for whatever there is. It was tough to get an assistant professor job 30 years ago and I can't imagine what it must be like now.
> I would have expected a higher percentage. This. A 60% stay rate evokes scenarios of academic inbreeding and a total disconnect between the real world and the small bubble where research groups operate.
Ah yes, the real world of corporations and all their made-up bullshit. Much more real than a university.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#13Logic checks out. Not everyone should be a professor. The question is: should they have done a PhD and postdoc?
It's like being a professional athlete. Until you get to the first division you don't know if you have what it takes and no one else does either.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I would have expected a higher percentage. This. A 60% stay rate evokes scenarios of academic inbreeding and a total disconnect between the real world and the small bubble where research groups operate.
Ah yes, the real world of corporations and all their made-up bullshit. Much more real than a university.
Figuring out new and better ways to make the owners richer is both a real-world and chronically underfunded problem.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#15I'm not sure about the situation elsewhere, but in Lithuania, it feels like professors produce articles or tackle topics solely to check a box. Most of the content generated by universities here seems completely irrelevant and ends up being discarded after completion. The courses are very bland and uninformative too.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#16I'm shocked it's that low. I suppose, it's limited by the number and motivations of people who apply for postdocs, but the amount of soul crushing disappointment and borderline abuse of postdocs is legendary.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#17Can't read the article, but it's about postdoc.
- Many people who did a PhD and didn't want to do research don't do a postdoc
- I would say, "40% have left so far'. Following the same cohort for a few years might yield even higher numbers (because as long you haven't made your mind about quitting research, you are still a postdoc and not accounted for leaving, even it's your 10th year...).
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I would have expected a higher percentage. This. A 60% stay rate evokes scenarios of academic inbreeding and a total disconnect between the real world and the small bubble where research groups operate.
Ah yes, the real world of corporations and all their made-up bullshit. Much more real than a university.
ML papers by Western universities barely touch on the problems that practitioners face.
The only papers I see that are routinely useful have half the authors having a .in or .cn email at the end with the rest having Indian and Chinese names in US institutions.
The only western papers which aren't extended advertisements for their company are from people who are making something for themselves.
For example the best paper on image classification I've ever seen was posted on a private discord and was about better labeling the parts of a vagina as part of a stable diffusion training pipeline.
I used the methods without change and got better than state of the art for document segmentation.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#19The question is: How many decide against doing a post doc, while considering it for some time during the PhD time. When you commit becoming a postdoc, you know how the game is played, you have a good network, you have a good topic to work on.
Not necessarily. A three or four year PhD in Europe is a short time to acquire a solid network (a lot of time is spent in training, unless the student is very proactive) and not all PhDs broaden their horizon to have a well differentiated topic to pursue after the degree. I would argue that true independence is actually acquired in the early postdoc years, but it requires a lot of work and a lot of luck.
TBH, 40% attrition rate is less I expected. Since each academic can train more than one PhD and postdoc every few years, which is the case, some attrition is required because the system cannot grow exponentially. The desired outcome in this context is that this talent incorporates to industry or other sectors where this expertise or problem solving skills are not wasted.
Re: More than 40% of postdocs leave academia, study reveals
#20I would have expected a higher percentage. Few openings and a high bar for whatever there is. It was tough to get an assistant professor job 30 years ago and I can't imagine what it must be like now.
> I would have expected a higher percentage. This. A 60% stay rate evokes scenarios of academic inbreeding and a total disconnect between the real world and the small bubble where research groups operate.
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